Differential-gear lock.



A. WOLF. DIFFERENTIAL GEAR LOOK.

APPLICATION FILEI) SEPT. 8, 1909.

968,224. v P n e Aug. 23, 1910.

S N K H c E Q G E Jr E1 v vf' E WITNESSES IN VEN TOR.

AUSTIN M. WOLF, or NEW YORK, N. Y.

DIFFERENTIAL-GEAR LOCK.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUSTIN M. WOLF, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in .the borough of Manhattan, county of New York, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful D-iflerential-Gear Look, of which the following is a specification. I

My invention relates to differential gearing, and its object is to provide a simple and efiicient means whereby the divided shaft, whose sections are under the control of the differential gearing mechanism, may be locked together at the will of the oper ator. As applied ,to the motor-vehicle, the differential gearing is often a cause of loss of traction and other undesirable results. By. providing a means whereby the two sections of the divided shaft may be made virtually one, many objections to the differential gearing, as now used, will be overcome. The means for providing the above will be more readily understood, reference being had to the accompanying drawing which is a sectional view of my improved differential earing.

In the di erential gearin B represent the divided sha ends of the same fit into gears shown, A and t. The squared the hubs of the C and D respectively. The pinions are housed within the shell F, F.

- They are free to revolve on the arms of the spider G and mesh with gears C and D. The gear H is secured to the shell F, F and meshes with the driving pinion I. In order to permit of assembling, the shell is built up of two sections; namely F and F. with in F is mounted the gear C, whereas F contains gear D. The spider G is held in position when the two sections of the shell are assembled.

A clutch member J, mounted upon shaft A and shiftable longitudinally upon the same, has as its object to lock the gear C to the shell F, F, preventing thereby relative motion between them. If the above is done, the pinions E, E are no lon er free to revolve. Since theycannot revo ve the gear D is prevented from rotating. Thus by locking one of the train of gears to the shell, the remaining ones cannot revolve-and the whole mechanism revolves as one solid unit when the pinion '1 drives the gear H, irrespective of Specification of Letters Patent.-

the .circumstances of the. shafts A and B.

Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

Application filed September 8, 1909. Serial No. 516,799.

sponding clutching portions L are formed on the end of the hub of gear C. The member J loosely receives shaft A and is mounted within the shell member F so that it will turn positively with it and be shiftable longitudinally within the same. This is accomplished by having the feathers M located on member J fit into the corresponding rooves N .within the shell member F.

uitable means (not shown) for shifting the clutch member J are provided.

It will be seen that. upon shifting clutch member J there will be no relative motion between the gear G and the shell F, F and therefore the shafts A and B rotate as if undivided when pinion I drives gear H. When the lock is not in use, the regular differential action is in no way prevented. It will be seen that the same improvement ma be made upon a differential gearing o the spur gear type as well as the one of the bevel gear type shown. Since the only difference between the two types lies in the fact that spur gears replace the bevel gears C and D and a pair of spur pinions, meshing with each other and each one meshing separately with one of the spur gears mentioned, replace each of the bevel pinions E, E, the locking mechanism remains unchanged.

Having thus described my invention, what I I claim and desire to ent is:

In amechanism of the character described, a divided shaft composed of two sections, a -gear mounted on'one of said sections, a gear having clutching portions mounted on the other of said sections, pinions meshing with said gears for allowin relative motion between said sections, said gears and pinions being mounted within a shell, and a clutch member shiftable longitudinally upon one of said sections having clutchin portions capable of meshing with the clutching portions of one of said gears and v sleeved portion of said shell, substantially as described.

Whereunto I afiix my name in the presence of two-subscribing witnesses."

AUSTIN wonF'. Witnesses protect by Letters Pat- 

